Rutgers finishes fourth out of 20 teams in Metro Team Challenge

When the Rutgers women’s track and field team entered the Armory in the Bronx for the Metro Team Challenge last Friday, its goal was to do well in its individual events and to continue to improve.

When all was said and done, the Scarlet Knights finished fourth among a 20-team field with a total of 72 points. They managed this feat without participating in many of the events, including the relays.

Ninth-year head coach James Robinson saw this as a learning experience and was proud of his team’s placement at the meet.

“I’m happy with the way we competed,” Robinson said. “These were individual events we needed to develop and improve on throughout the season.”

The Williamstown, New Jersey, native won all three events she was entered in, qualifying for the ECAC meet later on this season in all three events in the process. The events she won include the 60-meter sprint, 200-meter sprint and the long jump for the third consecutive meet.

Farquharson’s long jump of 6.31 meters is the best in the Big Ten so far this season and is currently the fifth-best jump in the nation.

“It’s a bit nerve wracking if I’m honest. I’ve never had this much recognition before,” Farquharson said. “I try to take the nerves and use them as motivation. I feel like nerves are a good thing — they drive me to be better.”

Impressively, Farquharson had to rush from the long jump to the 60m qualifiers to be able to compete in the finals of the event.

“The 60m was right after my long jump. I literally took a jump, took my jump spikes off, put my sprint spikes on and ran without thinking about it,” Farquharson said.

Two more Knights left the Armory qualified for the ECAC with their performances in their respective events.

Freshman Bria Saunders qualified in the 200m with a time of 24.88 seconds, earning a third place finish in the process. Junior Paige Senatore finished second in the 3000m with a time of 9:53.21, earning her spot at the ECAC.

“I thought it went really well,” Senatore said after the race. “The Villanova girls were in front pressing the pace, but I hung on to them and I found that worked the best.”